


Ladders, Ice and Christmas Lights

by jisoomes



Series: Hayffie Christmas 2020 [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28170162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jisoomes/pseuds/jisoomes
Summary: Based on the prompt: Why can’t you turn your Christmas lights off at a reasonable hour? They’re way too bright and some of us are trying to sleep. If you won’t turn them off, I’ll turn them off myself AU
Relationships: Haymitch Abernathy/Effie Trinket
Series: Hayffie Christmas 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063949
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: Hayffie Christmas Stories





	Ladders, Ice and Christmas Lights

The credits finally rolled and Effie gave up trying to stop her eyelids drooping... She wondered whether she’d muster up the energy to turn the television off and drag herself upstairs.

It was not looking likely. Not when she was all warm in her fluffy blanket and head wonderfully cushioned on the new Christmas pillows she had treated herself to. Her house was wrapped in Christmas and she _loved_ it. The living rooms lights were off, save for the red, green and yellow fairy lights basking the entire place with soft twinkling light... It was like a cocoon of Christmas.

There was a soft thud outside - not unnatural despite the time of night. Her neighbour was almost nocturnal some parts of the year. In the beginning, she had seen him so little she thought the house was abandoned. Until he had knocked on her door one Halloween to complain about her decorations.

Haymitch Abernathy was not as fond of Christmas as she was - for which she was glad because she loved decorating and she’d hate for this holiday to turn into a competition. It already was for her family, she was grateful for the absence of it in her own street.

Besides, she had a feeling he knew he would lose in a Christmas decoration competition. She knew that she went overboard every year yet she couldn’t help it. She loved buying gifts and shiny tinsel and massive trees. _Was it really her fault that everything was so sparkly and pretty?_

She heard a significantly louder and closer thud and startled a little. It had sounded almost right outside of her front door.

,em>You’re being paranoid, she told herself.

But then there was a definite three bangs on the door. Angry smacks of a fist against her door…

Effie wasn’t silly, she was not going to open the door to whatever violent beast could not use her doorbell - which she had even set to play ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ just for the occasion - without some kind of weapon. Not at this time of night and with all those unfamiliar sounds...

She didn’t own a baseball bat or a gun, but she did possess very sharp knives gifted from her father for her birthday for cooking - not that she cooked a lot. But it seems they did come in handy after all.

Would she look a little mad opening the door, knife in hand? Perhaps. She’d keep it in the hand behind the door, she decided, just in case.

There were more insistent thuds at the door.

“For goodness sake, what is wrong with the doorbell?” She complained to herself before she opened the front door. She had locked it because she had been planning to go to bed… “Whatever is the matter?”

The culprit was none other than her neighbour - dressed rather inappropriately for the winter weather in a pair of flannel pyjama pants and not much else. She didn’t look at his chest, she _didn’t_ , but she was surprised to find more muscle than expected. He was not the type to be shirtless - at least she had never seen him shirtless before.

 _A shame_ , she decided. He wasn’t fit but he was slim enough and slightly hairy in a way that she immediately found manly.

What was wrong with her?

She slammed the mental lid on those thoughts right away, instead turning her attention to the fury in her neighbour’s gaze. “May I help you?”

“Turn off those _fucking_ lights,” he warned. “Or I’ll turn them off myself.”

Haymitch gestured to a little ladder behind him - how had she missed _that_?

Effie pursed her lips. “Ask nicely.”

“Fuck off,” he spat. “It’s 1 am, some of us are trying to sleep.”

She didn’t bat an eyelash. “Close your curtains, then.”

He never closed his curtains, she knew that already. Effie wasn’t quite sure why but she had always been able to peer into his house no matter what time of day it was. Not that she had a habit of doing that.

Haymitch studied her for a moment, before nodding. “Alright, that’s how you wanna play it…”

His right hand wrapped around the little step ladder and he pulled out a knife from his pocket with the other.

“What on _Earth_ are you going to do with that?” She asked, alarmed. Maybe it was good she had brought her own knife after all. She would not let him touch her precious lights let alone cut them. He’d have to get through _her_ first.

Her neighbour looked undisturbed. “If you won’t turn them off, I’ll turn them off myself.”

“Absolutely not,” she forbade. “I only told you to ask nicely, is that really so hard?”

“With you? Yes,” he sneered. “You’re the most belligerent, irritating bitch I’ve ever met.”

She gasped, she couldn’t help it. She had never been under the impression that he liked her, but she hadn’t expected that.

“I can assure you, you are the only person who thinks that about me,” she said. “Which points to that being a _you_ problem.”

He smirked. “A me problem that I’m about to solve on my own.”

With that for warning, he took a step on the ladder. She didn’t even have time to suggest he change shoes - surely it wasn’t safe to climb ladders in worn slippers? - before he slipped on the frosty surface and fell backwards.

 _Karma_ , she couldn't help but think.

She reached out to try and help, but with one hand full with the knife and the other left to support a fully grown man, it didn’t help much. In the end, it only ensured she tripped under his weight too.

“Why the fuck have you got a knife?” Haymitch asked at the same time she let out a panicked: _‘Are you okay?’_

Haymitch snorted beside her. “I’ll be better when you put that down.”

“I didn’t know who you were, I wasn’t going to answer the door unarmed in the middle of the night to somebody who can’t even use my doorbell,” she defended. However, she did put the knife next to her little plant pot to get up. And just because she was nice, she offered him her hand too.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he grumbled. He took her hand after a moment's hesitation. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to keep his weight off of her or not but he certainly felt lighter than she’d expected. “Didn’t mean to scare you that much.”

She waved it off. “Do you want to come in? You must be freezing after falling in the snow.”

“One moment ago, you thought you needed a knife to answer me and now you’re inviting me in?” He chuckled. “No offence, princess, but I am exhausted. Just turn the lights off and we’re even.”

Haymitch dusted off the trousers as if he’d done his work for the day.

She, on the other hand, was not convinced. “Hang on, you bang on _my_ door to demand I turn off my lights, try to climb a ladder to cut said lights and fall… _Where_ exactly, are we even?”

He considered this. “Well, when you put it like that, I sound like an asshole.”

“You _are_.” She shuffled closer to her house - to the warmth. She was wearing her winter pyjamas but they were not intended for outdoors. “If you’re not going to ask nicely, then I won’t turn them off.”

“Fine, would you turn off your lights?” He sighed behind her.

“Say please,” she insisted, taking far too much joy in his pain. When she turned to look at him and pick up the knife from the floor, he looked as if he wanted to kill her.

Strangely enough, it didn’t scare her. Something about him told her he would not get violent, despite his threats. And the knife she knew he still had.

“ _Please_ , sweetheart, turn off your lights.” He didn’t look happy but she let it slide, she had asked enough from him.

She reached to the side of her door, pressed the switch for the fairy lights and only pouted a little when her front lawn was bathed in darkness once again.

“You’re welcome!” She said with a smile, already knowing he wouldn’t thank her.

And he didn’t, with a final glare he picked up the ladder and began the short trek to his property.

“Merry Christmas, Haymitch!” She jeered at his back, laughing when she heard him grumble a reply. _He was far too fun to irritate,_ she was learning.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise everything is not a mini-sequel from Halloween, I guess the universes were still in my head when I started writing though haha. What did you think? Loved it? Hated it? Is Haymitch overdramatic in this universe? xD I want to know all your thoughts :)


End file.
